Method of making feather boas and the like.



A. ARBB.

METHOD OF MAKING FEATHER BOAS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 15, I914.

1 1 98,8 10. Patented Sept. 19, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

A. ARBIB.

METHOD OF MAKING FEATHER BOAS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 15. 1914.

1,198,810. Patented Sept. 19,1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

m: mum's perms m. PHOTO Llnm WA smm w. n 1.

A. ARBIB.

METHOD OF MAKING FEATHER BOAS AND THE LlKE.

APPLICATION HLED JAN. 15, I914.

PatentedSept. 19, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3- WITNESSES ATTO 51 UNKTE %TATE% FAN FFfQ ALEXANDER ARBIB, OF NEW YORK, 1\T. Y.

METHOD OF MAKING FEATHER BOAS AND THE LIKE.

Original application filed August 12, 1912, Serial No. 714,538.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 19, i lfi.

Divided and this application filed January 15, 1914. Serial No. 812,253.

and the like, of which the following is a' specification.

This invention relates to a new and useful method of making feather boas and the like.

This is a dii'isional application based on the application of myself, for method of and apparatus for making feather boas, &c., filed August 12, 1912, and bearingthe Serial No. 71%,538.

Broadly stated my invention contemplates the feeding of a properly juxtaposed substantially continuous succession of feathers to mechanism which unites the feathers so as to make of them a continuous length of material that is useful for feather-boas, etc.,

How the method is carried out will appear from the following description of the various steps thereof made in connection with the method itself and in connection with form of mechanism which may advantageously be used to carry out the method;

The invention consists substantially in the various steps of saidmethod, said steps preferably occurring in the order hereinafter described, and as will be more fully hereinafter set forth, as shown in the accompanying drawings, and as finally specifically pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying. drawings, which are to be taken as a part of this specification:Figure 1 is an elevation of a mechanism which is adapted to perform the several operations, of my process; Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof; Fig. 3 is a section on the line -3 of Fig. 9-; Fig. is a section on the line 1l of Fig. 2; broken away; Fig. 5 is a detail showing possible relations of the needle to the succession of feathers; Fig. 6 is a detail of means which may be used in connection with the present process better to guide the feathers; Fig. 7 is a detail illustrating another means which also may be used in connection with the present. process better to feed the feathers; Figs. 8. and 9 show in detail the structure of the fabric turned out by the process; and Fi 10 is a detail of a tension device which may advantageously be employed during the carrying out of the process.

Similar reference characters refer to similar elements throughout the several views of the drawings.

The preferable steps of carrying out the present process, and the preferable order of said steps, may now be described.

Feathers are arranged in properly juxtaposed relation, that is, preferably with their quills longitudinally alined and with ends overlapping and butts to the rear. Bythe term rear is meant the rear terminus of the succession of feathers to which additional separate feathers are continuously added, in accordance with the preferable method of carrying out the process, so that the opposite end of the succession of feath ers may be preferably continuously moved forward either toward or past the field of operation of the sewing means which is preferably employed to unite said succession of independent feathers to a unitary boa or the like. By the term butts is meant the ends of the feathers wherea-t the thicker end of the quill extends past the collection of fines. A binding cord is preferably arranged longitudinally of the succession of feathers substantially medially thereof, and also preferably advances toward the succession of feathers in such a Way that said cord will overlie the quills at a point in advance of the field of operation of the sewing means and thus be capacitated to accompany the succession, of feathers which is advancing toward said field. During this advance of the succession of feathers toward the field of operation of the sewing machine, the said succession of feathers is preferably so maintained with reference to its fixed supporting table or the like that it substantially advances as one continuous endwisely traveling unit, the quills be ng maintained in a straight line, the fines being outspread from the quills to lie substantially parallel of the supporting table and thence as the line of quills advances being so maintained that any of said fines does not have any opportunity of movement. relatiyely of its quilhand the cordbemg maintained in close superposition with reference to the line of quills. Also the succession of feathers is preferably fed past the field of operation of the sewing means intermittently, in aid of the proper functioning of the best known types of such sewing means.

1 will now proceed to describe more in detail a particular process which is a preferable embodiment of this invention, and in connection. therewith, and in aid of a disclosure of the process, the apparatus shown in the drawings will be in detail described and reference made thereto.

In the drawings 1 show a table 10, sup ported by a frame 11. At one end of the table is a double idler 12, over which runs a pair of belts 14 spaced apart by an annular rib 15 on idler 12. From the idler 12 these belts 14 run horizontally over the table, in close proximity thereto, being maintained in spaced relation and with edges parallel, and pass around an idler 16, similar to idler 12, and thence to a driven pulley 17 suitably supported in the machine below the table, pulley 17 being in other respects similar to idlers 12 and 16. Pulley 17 is fixed on shaft 18, which is rotated step-by-step by means of ratchet wheel 19 fast on the shaft, and

pawl 20, carried on one end of pivoted lever 21, whose other end is connected, through connecting rod 22, to crank-disk 24, which rotates with shaft 25, the latter being driven from motor 26 through suitable connections. A complementary pair of belts 27 has its members in vertical alinement with the members of the pair 14, and the members of this pair 27 pass around idlers 28 and 29 above the table, similar to idlers 12 and 17, in that means are provided for keeping the belts 27 in spaced relation, and around a driven pulley 30 whose shaft 31 is rotative in a suitable bracket 32 above the table, and driven through chain 33 engaging sprocket 34 on shaft 31 and sprocket 35 on shaft 36, the latter being rotated step-by-step from shaft 25, by means of the meshing gears 37 and 38, Fig. 3. It will be observed that both pairs of belts, 14 and 27, have a part of their vertically alined courses immediately above the table; these portions of their courses are preferably horizontal, and the members of the pair 27, which are immediately above the members of the pair 14, are urged into yieldin g surface engagement therewith throughout the horizontal extent of the courses; springpressed rollers 39, each having an annular median rib, depending between the members of the upper pair 27, and having portions at the sides of said rib that engage the members of the pair 27 respectively. Said rollers depend from stems 40 and 41, slidable in hous-' ings secured to the table, springs 42 surrounding the stems and bearing in each cas between the housing and a collar 44 adjus ably fixed on the stem. 1

In Fig. 6 I show a plate 45 that lies be tween the members of pair 14, as indicated at 45 and 45 in Fig. 4, said plate being for reasons which will be obvious.

fixed to the table and spacing the members of pair 14 apart horizontally. This plate 45 is preferably made in two pieces, 45 and 45 (Fig. 6), with their ends spaced apart for the passage of the sewing machine needle. The upper face of this plate is preferably concaved or troughed, and the longitudinal channel thus formed is preferably widest at the feeding-in end and narrows in the opposite direction. In Fig. 7 I show a spacing member for the horizontal course of the members of the upper pair 27 comprising a spring member 46, secured to the table as shown in Fig. 2, and having a portion 47 intermediate its ends, fitting between the members of the pair 27 the surfaces of the member 46 at each side of portion 47 resting above belts 27. The under face of portion 47 is preferably concaved as shown, for reasons which will presently appear.

Carried by the stem 40 is a cord gripper, comprising a pair of opposed members 48, one of which is urged toward the other by an adjustable spring 49. A cord 50 is adapted to be held between said members 48, but passes therebetween on the application of slight draft. The cord is fed as from a spool 51, suitably supported, and is led over a curved spring tension plate 52, and under a spring compression member 54 carried thereby, and thence between members 48 (see Fig. 2). From members 48, (and now see Fig. 4) in the operation of the machine the cord is led beneath an annular groove formed in roller 39, and thence beneath the portion 47. To the left of the portion 47 in Figs. 1, 2, and 4, (which, by the way, is the direction taken by all the belts 14 and 27 in their horizontal courses, as indicated by the arrows of Fig. 1) is mounted a sewing machine, indicated generally at 55. I prefer that this machine should be of the type in which alternate reciprocations of the needle 55 take place in diflerent vertical planes, as shown in full and dotted lines, Fig. 5. The parts are arranged so that the reciprocations of the needle take place between vertical planes that include the alined space between the members of pairs 14 and 27.

At one end of the table (to the left in Figs. 1 and 2), and adjacent the end of the horizontal course of the pair of belts 14, is

mounted a pair of rolls 56, 57, roll 56 being spring-pressed toward roll 57, and the latter being preferably corrugated. These rolls are on shafts 58 and 59, the latter a driven shaft, which causes rotation of the former x'through meshing gears 60 and 61 carried by said shafts respectively; shaft 59 is driven hrough sprocket 62 and chain 64, from shaft 25. The sewing machine is preferably driven from the motor 26, the connections being arranged so that it is driven faster than the rate of drive of the belts 14 and 27,

The apparatus thus briefly described is preferably utilized as follows :Feathers are arranged in properly juxtaposed relation as hereinbefore described. In this condition they are regularly fed or laid upon the right hand end of the horizontal course of the conveyer be ts 14- (Figs. 1 and 2), the horizontal-course of said pair extending at each end well beyond the corresponding ends of the horizontal course of the complementary belts 27. The quills and median portions of the line of feathers will be alined medially above the space between the belts 14. and the flues, extending at opposite sides laterally of the quills, will rest upon the belts l i. In the intermittent feed of the belts 14 toward the left, the line of feathers will be carried beneath the horizontal course of the upper conveyor belts :27, the quills alined as before with the space between the members of the pair of belts 14, which space is of course continuous with that between the members of the pair 27, and the fines of the line of feathers will be gripped between the opposed members of the two pairs of belts, and as the pairs of belts move synchronously toward the left the line of feathers will be carried along. Passing beneath the first presser-roller 39, the cord 40 is fed to the line of feathers, overlying the same substantially medially of the feathers, or above the quills (Figs. 8 and 9). The line of feathers, with superposed cord, travels on to the left, into the field of operations of the sewing machine. While the line is advancing a step the needle is up, and during the pauses in such intermittent advance the needle descends, alternately in different vertical planes (Fig. 5), puncturing the line of feathers on opposite sides of the quills and superposed cord, and cooperating with the other parts of the sewing machine which are operative below the feathers, to stitch the feathers t gether by a zig-zag stitch (Figs. 8 and 9) that passes back and forth over the longitudinally extending quills and superposed cord. The shuttle which cooperates with the needle below the feathers in stitch ing them together, as well asother details of the sewing machine, are not shown or described because they are well-known. From the sewing machine the line of feathers,

with attached cord, now passes on with the step-bystep movements of the conveying belts until it reaches the rolls 56, 57, between which it passes, and which rolls act to make the movement of the line of feathers more positive. The importance of maintaining the horizontally spaced relation be tween the belts, especially adjacent the field of operations of the sewing machine, will be appreciated; as well as the necessity for keeping the binding cord under proper ten sion and properly alined so that the danger of the needle piercing the cord or belts is avoided. Positiveness of travel of the feathers is aided by the presser-rollers 39, which urge the horizontal course of upper belts toward the complementary horizontal course of the lower belts, and by the rolls 56 and 57, which act to positively draw the line of sewed-together feathers out of the machine, step-by-step, in consonance with the intermittent travel of the belts and the operation of the sewing machine. The use of the plate 4-5, which is located at the right hand end of the upper horizontal belts and extends to the left of the needle, is to line up the feathers, that is, to bring the quills into longitudinal alinement. It will be understood, of course, that before beginning operations the cord 50 is led between members 418, under rollers 39 whose medial ribs may be grooved, in. order to keep the cord alined, as well as under member 47, and between the rolls and 57. The rotation of the latter,-

in connection with the various tension devices which the cord engages, will maintain it (the cord) under proper tension throughout its effective length in the machine. The feed of feathers is into the right-hand end of the machine, as stated, and assuming such a feed rapid enough to keep pace with the operations of the apparatus, it is evident that a continuous length of the sewed material may be produced, which may be cut up into shorter lengths as desired. In other words, the line of feathers moves intermittently into the field of operations of the sewing means, and as rapidly as the front end of the line is stitched and moves on away from the needle, additions of feathers, properly arranged, are made to the other end of the line, so that a line of any desired length be made with a substantially continuousseries of operations. There is, therefore, a moving line within the machine, constantly added to at one end in correspondence with the rate of movement of the line as a whole. The advantages of such a continuous process over the old method, whereby a line of feathers was framed up by hand, subjected to the sewing operation, the frame emptied of the sewed feathers, and refilled for another operation, all. by hand, and with all the disadvantages of careless ness and waste of time, are obvious.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently wide different embodiments of my invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall' be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim 1. The method which consists in providing a line of feathers longitudinally over lapping with quills alined, moving said line through the feld of operations of a stationary sewing means, superposing a binding cord above the line of quills and moving the same along with the line of feathers, subjecting the median portion of the line of feathers to the action of the sewing means to bind the overlapping portions of the quills together and the quills to the binding cord, and adding to the line of feathers and to the binding cord in correspondence with the movement of the line of feathers.

2. The method which consists in providing a line of feathers longitudinally overlapping with quills alined, intermittently moving said line through the field of opera tions of a stationary sewing means, superposing a binding cord above the line of quills and moving the same along with the line of feathers, subjecting the median portion of the line of feathers to the action of the sewing means to bind the overlapping portions of the quills together and the quills to the binding cord, and adding to the line of feathers and to the binding cord in correspondence with the movement of the line of feathers.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two witnesses. ALEXANDER ARBIB. In the presence of- H. D. JAMESON, N. E. Rooms.

Copies 01 this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. C. 

